This week’s episode was entitled “316”.  The episode focuses on Jack and the other LOSTies who are off the island.  A very good episode that gives us some more mysteries.  Now one would say, but that’s just your typical “LOST” episode, but not this one.  I felt the questions that arose in this episode were shocking and very surprising even for me as a regular “LOST” viewer.  How long before we find out the answers to these new mysteries and what other mysteries lie ahead?

Spoilers….............

This episode shocked the hell out of me. THEY ARE BACK ON THE ISLAND!  I can’t believe it. My guess was that this was going to happen at the end of the season and here they are back on the island.

The episode begins with a recreation of the pilot episode with Jack’s eye opening and we pull back to see him lying on the ground in the jungle. At first I thought they were replaying this scene over, but I noticed as they pulled back, Jack’s hair was a bit grayer and I knew that this was not the pilot. Jack hears cries for help and he - like in the pilot - rushes through the jungle to help. We see that it’s Hurley in a body of water - I guess he can’t swim. Jack dives in and saves him and notices that Kate is washed up on the shore as well. We then flash back to 46 hours prior to this incident which takes us back to the end of last week’s episode of Jack and everybody visiting Elouise at the church - which we discover is also connected to the Dharma Initiative as the room underneath is a Dharma station called the Lamp Post. It is here where Dharma first discovered the island.

Elouise gives them a flight which they all can get on to get back to the island. Evidently the plane is flying through a portal in time that will take them there. Elouise also tells Jack in private that he must bring something that belonged to his father with him to the island. This leads us to a scene where Jack gets a phone call about his grandfather Ray. Was this character ever seen before? I don’t remember. The scene almost felt out of place and didn’t make sense, but then we see that his grandfather has a pair of shoes that belonged to Jack’s father. This is key because in order for the flight to work, things must be as close to the way the things where on Flight 815. Jack’s father was on that plane dead in a coffin and John Locke will take the place of Jack’s dad complete with his shoes.

We know from last week’s episode that Kate refused to go along with the plan to go back to the island. However, Jack comes home and finds Kate in his bed. She’s going back, but without Aaron. This is one of the big mysteries that shook me up this episode. Aaron is gone and Kate tells Jack to never ask her why. Where is Aaron and since he’s not on the plane, will that effect things somehow?

Jack arrives at the airport with Kate who for some reason is hanging in the background pretending they are not together. A mysterious man who is behind Jack on line at the airport offers Jack his condolences as he over hears Jack talking about bringing his dead friend’s body on the plane. This man also shows up on the flight.

Sun also arrives and gets on the plane as does Hurley. How did Hurley get out of jail? Did Ben break him out of jail? One cool scene here shows Hurley reading a trade paperback to “LOST” writer and comic book writer Brian K Vaughn’s “Y The Last Man”. It’s in Spanish which harks back to the “Green Lantern/Flash: Faster Friends” comic that Hurley and Walt were reading in the first season that was also in Spanish.

Sayid ends up on the plane too. He’s being escorted onto the plane in handcuffs by a cop or federal agent. Did Ben set this up and did he do it to get Sayid on the plane and mirror how Kate was on Flight 815? Also on the plane is Frank Lapidus as he is the pilot of the flight.  Another mystery!  How and why is he on this plane?!

The plane begins to get some turbulence and just as it looks like the plane is about to go down and crash, the mysterious time traveling light that we’ve seen on the island flashes and we are back to the point where the episode started with Jack lying down in the jungle. The scene plays out as it did in the beginning of the episode, but continues even further as a Dharma van similar to the one Hurley drove in the third season - only this time its brand new. The driver gets out of the van and points a rifle at them and the driver is…Jin!

So to wrap up this week’s episode, the big mysteries are where did Ben go after he left Jack and the others at the church? What happened to him as he is bloodied up, scarred, and has a injured arm? Where is Aaron? Why doesn’t Kate want to talk about it? Who is this new character on the plane? And what is Jin doing in a new Dharma van?  Will we have to wait until next season?!  Ugh!

The two most interesting mysteries for me are where did Ben go and where is Aaron? Did Ben kill someone? He did promise Widmore that he would kill his daughter Penny. Did he succeed? Maybe he killed Widmore. I also would not be surprised if he’s behind Aaron’s disappearance. He tried to take him away from Kate early on in the season and he told her that Aaron is not her son.

Next week’s episode is entitled “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”.  From the previews it will show how Locke died and possibly how he was resurrected.

See you next week!